Fishermen across Europe are to be banned from dumping billions of dead fish back into the sea in a move by Brussels designed to put an end to the “morally wrong” waste of sea life.

The change comes after an admission that EU fishing policy was doing more damage than good among the fragile stocks of the North Atlantic, where 1.3 million tonnes of fish, or 13 per cent of the catch, are thrown back every year. In the North Sea, between 500,000 and 880,000 tonnes of fish are discarded.

Dutch sole fishermen in the southern North sea use a fine mesh that allows young sole to escape, but is too fine for plaice or cod — meaning that up to 80 per cent of their catch is thrown away. For every cod or plaice eaten in Britain, one fish caught in the North Atlantic is thrown back according to the latest figures.

Almost every creature thrown overboard has already died in the crush of the net or during the sorting process on deck. They include those which are illegal to keep because of EU quotas supposed to protect them as well as millions of young fish banned under rules aimed at replenishing stocks.

Fishermen also argue that the strict time limits at sea, which have been imposed on them by Brussels, gives them little choice but to discard low-value fish, crabs and shellfish to leave room on the boat for more lucrative catches.

Joe Borg, the EU Fisheries Commissioner, described the dumping driven by his own fisheries policies as “morally wrong” and vowed to “eliminate discards in European fisheries” by taking a leaf out of the book of nonEU countries. All fish caught would have to be taken back to port and would count against fish quotas. The size of each species’ quota may be renegotiated to accommodate the new rules.

The Maltese commissioner said: “It is morally wrong to literally dump fish back into the sea. We are wasting a precious resource . . . every fish should be landed and when a quota was fulfilled the fishery shut.” He said that the policy overhaul, starting next year, would encourage fishermen to adopt the latest techniques to cut back on the accidental catch of so many young, restricted and commercially worthless fish.

Officials admit that they are trying to learn the lessons of “no discard” policies in Iceland and Norway — two countries which stayed out of the EU — whose fishermen dump only about 4 per cent of their catch and have rebuilt cod stocks while European cod levels remain dangerously low.

In one of the most wasteful cases in European waters, up to 90 per cent of the entire catch is routinely thrown back by fishermen in the North Sea, including protected juvenile cod and plaice caught by trawlers using small gauge nets to capture lucrative sole. Their net size is set at 80mm to catch adult sole, fish that are adept at folding up and slipping through a bigger mesh. Their nets are much finer than those used by Scottish cod fishermen in the northern North Sea, for example, who cannot have nets smaller than 120mm, the gauge deemed necessary to enable young cod to escape.

Mr Borg believes that new targets for the acceptable level of “by-catch” for each species will be able to drive down the dumping. Fishermen will demand compensation if they are to be ordered to bring everything they catch back to port. If the level is set too high, fishermen could see it as an incentive to catch worthless fish for an EU subsidy, while if it is set too low, dumping could just carry on because it is so difficult to police.

Mr Borg said that unwanted fish could be used in food or in products such as fish oil where possible and any earnings largely paid to fishermen’s groups rather than directly to the fishermen. His final proposals will be presented to EU fisheries ministers in December. He added: “The sooner we bring this wasteful practice to an end, the better for fish stocks, the marine environment and the fishing industry.”

Bertie Anderson, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, gave a cautious welcome to the plans provided they were not imposed in a hurry without giving the fleet time to adapt. “There will never be a day when there is no discard of fish but we can progress down the route of reducing waste which the Scottish fleet has already started.”

The environmental group WWF welcomed the move. “The success of the initiative will depend on EU member states’ willingness to put it in place, otherwise it will just end up being a little drop in the ocean,” said Aaron McLoughlin, head of the WWF European Marine Programme.

One technology being researched involves using an underwater electric pulse to shock the soles which then shoot up off the sea bed, cutting back the need for trawling.

State of supply

— 75 per cent of the world’s fish stocks are now overexploited or fully exploited

— 11,720 Britons employed in fishing

— 230,000 in the EU as a whole

— €4.1 billion aid given by EU to fishing industry since 2000

— €2 billion given by individual states

— 6 million tonnes of fish caught in the EU annually, compared with 17 million by China

Source: EU, UN

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